Privacy

What should you look for nowadays in a partner to help meet your financial protection, investment and insurance needs? One important factor, we think, is someone committed to protecting your privacy and honoring how you wish to be served.

That’s why for this site we have adopted our 3 basic privacy principles:*

No surprises »

We protect your personal information »

We listen »

Our goal is for you to get the most benefit from our web site, visit it anonymously if you wish, and have options for the kind of interaction you prefer.*

Enjoy your web experience with us!

 

Important:

Click on the above principles for details. For answers to frequently asked questions, see our FAQs which with the definitions and examples also form part of this policy. Please read our Terms of Use, which govern the use of this site. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of this policy and the Terms of Use.

 

* Please note that "you" and "yours" refers to you as an individual and not to any legal or corporate entity. "We" or "ours" refers only to Zurich Insurance Company, a company incorporated in Switzerland, which owns and operates this web site.

No surprises

  • This web site does not collect without your knowledge personal information. It may collect anonymous information that does not personally identify you.
  • We use cookies responsibly as a way to better serve you.
  • No SPAM: we don't send you mass unsolicited e-mails. If we contact you by e-mail it is, for example, to answer your questions, help you with a function you have selected on our site, or otherwise as you have requested.
  • We tell you how and why we collect personal information.
  • We may ask you for personal information when you register with us, complete a form or buy a product from us. Where possible, we indicate which information we need and which is optional.
  • We may collect personal information to answer your questions, establish or service your account or refer you to an affiliated company or other party that can best help you, or for other reasons as explained here.
  • If we collect personal information from other sources, it is only as explained here.
  • We use personal information collected in accordance with this our privacy commitment.

Contact us

For any question regarding a web site linked to this one, please contact directly such web site or the company responsible for it.

For questions regarding this web site, contact us either by e-mail, fax, post, or telephone. Please address your inquiry to the attention of our Privacy Compliance Officer.

  • Privacy Compliance Officer
    Phone: +41 1 625 28 74
    Fax:+41 1 625 08 74
    E-mail:privacy@zurich.com

Postal Address:

  • Zurich Insurance Group*
    Privacy Compliance Officer
    Mythenquai 2
    P.O. Box
    8022 Zurich
    Switzerland

    * a company incorporated in Switzerland.

Personal information

By "personal information" we mean any information that personally identifies you and that is not public.

Personal information includes:

  • Information on your relationship with us or transactions you do with us
  • Financial or health information
  • Information about you which you provide us, such as on a registration or application form
  • Other nonpublic personal information about you which we may receive or collect

Cookies

Cookies are small data files that contain and collect data. Typically, they are sent by a web site, like ours, and stored on the user's computer. Whenever the user requests a page from the web site, the cookies are sent back to the site.

We do not use cookies to get without your knowledge your e-mail address or other personal information.

Our aim is to use cookies on this site responsibly as a way to better serve you. For example:

  • So you don't have to identify yourself every time you re-enter our web site
  • To personalize our web site so as to save you time
  • To determine previous or subsequent sites visited by those visiting our site
  • To determine which parts of our web site are of most use to our visitors and customers and thus improve them accordingly

If you have provided us with personal information on this site, this information may be linked with the data stored in the cookie so as to be able to serve you as described above.

You have a choice on cookies

If you prefer not to receive cookies or be alerted each time a cookie is sent, you can set your web browser accordingly. If you disable cookies, you should be able in most cases to visit and make use of our web site. But you may be unable to benefit from some of our site's features or functions and your visit may be less speedy.

General purposes of the processing of personal data

Your data will be processed for the following purposes:

    - Processing of your requests when contacting us;
    - Customer service;
    - Ensuring the functionality and security of the website;
    - Ensuring a flawless service;
    - Optimization of our website offering and service delivery;
    - Market research;
    - Statistical evaluations;
    - Strategic development;
    - Abuse prevention;
    - Fulfill Zurich's legal and regulatory obligations;
    - Protecting Zurich's overriding interests, in particular in defending and enforcing its legal claims;

Collect

 

NOTE:

Any personal or other information collected by a site you may visit linked to this site will be in accordance with its policies and subject to the laws that apply to it.

 

Anonymous information

For various reasons, including to measure traffic activity and preferred areas of our site, we may from time to time track and share with others certain anonymous statistical information regarding usage of our sites or its users. You can rest assured that this type of information is aggregated anonymously and will not personally identify you.

Personal information

On this site we may collect certain personal information from you to:

  • Answer your questions or put you on a mailing list you have requested
  • Allow you to use features or functions on this site
  • Be able to refer you to one of our affiliates (companies members of our Group), to an agent, or to an external partner who can meet a need you have expressed
  • Properly advise you
  • Prevent any unauthorized transactions or other fraudulent activities
  • Offer you information on products or services that may interest you
  • Meet legal requirements

If you do (or apply to do) business with us, we may also collect information to:

  • Help us evaluate your application or request for an extension or renewal
  • Establish your account
  • Depending on the products we provide you, advise a co-insurer, reinsurer, asset securitization company, or other such parties of details they need in connection with transactions they are asked to handle
  • Process your payments, redemption requests, claims, etc.

To the extent we gather any personal information from a source other than you, it is only as permitted by law. Sources may include our affiliates, public sources, consumer reporting agencies, credit bureaus, medical service providers, companies that provide demographic or marketing data, and external partners.

Google Analytics 

On this website, the controller has integrated the component of Google Analytics (with the anonymizer function). Google Analytics is a web analytics service. Web analytics is the collection, gathering, and analysis of data about the behavior of visitors to websites. A web analysis service collects, inter alia, data about the website from which a person has come (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages were visited, or how often and for what duration a sub-page was viewed. Web analytics are mainly used for the optimization of a website and in order to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising.

The operator of the Google Analytics component is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, United States.

For the web analytics through Google Analytics the controller uses the application "_gat. _anonymizeIp". By means of this application the IP address of the Internet connection of the data subject is abridged by Google and anonymised when accessing our websites from a Member State of the European Union or another Contracting State to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

The purpose of the Google Analytics component is to analyze the traffic on our website. Google uses the collected data and information, inter alia, to evaluate the use of our website and to provide online reports, which show the activities on our websites, and to provide other services concerning the use of our Internet site for us.

Google Analytics places a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. The definition of cookies is explained above. With the setting of the cookie, Google is enabled to analyze the use of our website. With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and into which a Google Analytics component was integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject will automatically submit data through the Google Analytics component for the purpose of online advertising and the settlement of commissions to Google. During the course of this technical procedure, the enterprise Google gains knowledge of personal information, such as the IP address of the data subject, which serves Google, inter alia, to understand the origin of visitors and clicks, and subsequently create commission settlements.

The cookie is used to store personal information, such as the access time, the location from which the access was made, and the frequency of visits of our website by the data subject. With each visit to our Internet site, such personal data, including the IP address of the Internet access used by the data subject, will be transmitted to Google in the United States of America. These personal data are stored by Google in the United States of America. Google may pass these personal data collected through the technical procedure to third parties.

The data subject may, as stated above, prevent the setting of cookies through our website at any time by means of a corresponding adjustment of the web browser used and thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Such an adjustment to the Internet browser used would also prevent Google Analytics from setting a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. In addition, cookies already in use by Google Analytics may be deleted at any time via a web browser or other software programs.

In addition, the data subject has the possibility of objecting to a collection of data that are generated by Google Analytics, which is related to the use of this website, as well as the processing of this data by Google and the chance to preclude any such. For this purpose, the data subject must download a browser add-on under the link https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and install it. This browser add-on tells Google Analytics through a JavaScript, that any data and information about the visits of Internet pages may not be transmitted to Google Analytics. The installation of the browser add-ons is considered an objection by Google. If the information technology system of the data subject is later deleted, formatted, or newly installed, then the data subject must reinstall the browser add-ons to disable Google Analytics. If the browser add-on was uninstalled by the data subject or any other person who is attributable to their sphere of competence, or is disabled, it is possible to execute the reinstallation or reactivation of the browser add-ons.

Further information and the applicable data protection provisions of Google may be retrieved under https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ and under http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html. Google Analytics is further explained under the following Link https://www.google.com/analytics/.

Methods of protection

Protecting your personal information is a priority to us. In addition to secure servers not accessible to unauthorized persons, we may, depending on the nature of information in question and other factors, use on this web site other security measures such as:

  • ID and password protected systems
  • Secure electronic transactions (SET)
  • Secure sockets layers (SSL)
  • Computer firewalls (hardware and software)

No means of information storage or transmission, whether the postal system or the Internet, offers 100% security. But we think that by working together with our customers risks can be minimized. Please read: What can a consumer do to help protect his or her personal information?.

Example 1

By "affiliates" or "affiliated companies" we mean companies (separate legal entities) that are members of the Zurich Insurance Group.

When you visit our site and desire specific information, you are asked to select your country, so that you can get in touch with our affiliated company that can best serve you. In that case, any collection and use of personal or other information will be done by that affiliate, in accordance with its policies and subject to the laws that apply to it.

However, when we share directly any personal information gathered on this web site with an affiliated company - whether it is located in your country of residence or outside - you can be sure it has committed to protect this information.

Example 2

From time to time, we may use external service providers or contractors within or outside of your country of residence to perform certain services on our behalf. This may be done, for example, to help us handle billing statements, answer phone or other queries, process claims for our customers, or send a product announcement.

When we give external service providers/contractors access to personal information collected, we require them to protect this information and comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws. We prohibit these companies from sharing this information with companies not affiliated with them and from sending our customers unsolicited e-mails (SPAM).

External partners

By "external partners", we mean a company or individual with whom we may work but which is not an affiliate of the Zurich Insurance Group and not a service provider/contractor as described under Example 2.

We may work with selected external partners, from within or outside your country of residence, to put together joint offerings (or offerings from them alone) that are tailored to your needs or provide you greater choice. For example: we may team up with an external banking organization to make certain banking products available to you.

If to do this we find a need to share with external partners personal information collected on this site, we strive to limit it to information that is needed for the products or services to be offered.

To work with us, these external partners have to agree to protect personal information we share with them and to comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws. Additionally, we prohibit them from sharing this information with companies not affiliated with them and from sending our customers unsolicited e-mails (SPAM).

But if you would prefer for us not to share your personal information collected on this site with external partners for non-joint offerings (i.e., not jointly offered or sponsored with us or not done pursuant to a joint marketing agreement with us), you may tell us (opt out) and we will honor your request.

Example 3

We may if necessary also share personal information externally:

  • To comply with laws, regulations, and, where obligatory, industry rules
  • To resolve any service or billing disputes
  • In the context of legal proceedings
  • To prevent fraud
  • To anyone holding a legal or beneficial interest on behalf of the customer or us
  • Depending on the products we provide you, to meet contractual or other obligations in the context of reinsurance, securitization, financial guarantees and other such transactions
  • As you may request or approve

We protect your personal information

  • We have procedures to limit who has access to personal information and use a variety of methods, from secure servers to other technology to safeguard it.
  • Personal information stays securely with us or our affiliated companies (example 1) and with selected external providers we may use to perform some functions on our behalf (example 2). To work with us, these providers must commit to protect the personal information we share with them.
  • Any other external sharing or disclosure of personal information is as you request or approve, or as provided under external partners below, or as may be legally necessary or advisable (example 3).
  • We protect your personal information in accordance with the law even after you cease to be our customer.

Former customers

If you cease to be our customer, we will handle your personal information gathered on this site in accordance with the terms of this privacy commitment. We will keep your personal information for at least as long as required by law. From time to time, we may contact you to inform you about new products or services, unless you request otherwise.

We listen

  • To provide you even more choice, we may cooperate with trusted external partners. You may from time to time receive information on products and services offered by these partners.
  • But if you would prefer for us not to share your personal information with external partners for these purposes (when not involving a joint offering from us), you may tell us (opt out) and we will honor your request.
  • We make it easy for you to talk to us about our privacy commitment.
  • You may also contact us about any error in the personal information we have about you and we will do our best to correct it.
  • If we ever need to make any material changes to our privacy commitment, we will note this on our web site. You may also be informed in any other way as required by law

FAQ

Why read these FAQs?

These FAQs - as well as the definitions and examples - form an integral part of our privacy commitment (our privacy policy).

  • What's the purpose of this policy?
    To tell you as a customer or potential customer our views and efforts in protecting your privacy with respect to the use of this site. We also follow such additional measures as may be required by law.
    "You" refers to you as an individual current or potential customer, or visitor to this web site. It does not include corporate or other legal entities. "We" refers to Zurich Insurance Company, a company incorporated in Switzerland, and not to any other legal entity.
  • What does "you" or "we" mean?

    "You" refers to you as an individual current or potential customer, or visitor to this web site. It does not include corporate or other legal entities. "We" refers to Zurich Insurance Company, a company incorporated in Switzerland, and not to any other legal entity.

  • What are our Terms of Use?
    As with other web sites, the use of our site is subject to certain legal terms and conditions. These are found in our Terms of Use, which incorporate by reference our privacy commitment (including the FAQs, definitions and examples). Usage of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use.
  • Does this privacy commitment apply to other web sites or companies of the Zurich Insurance Group?

    This policy applies only to this web site, which is owned and operated by Zurich Insurance Company, a company incorporated in Switzerland. This web site is subject to Swiss law. Please check with other web sites to see their policy.

  • What's the purpose of links to other sites?

    Some sites may be outside your country of residence and subject to different regulators and rules. We recommend that before giving any personal information to any site, you review its privacy policy and terms of use.

  • What can a consumer do to help protect his or her personal information?

    We urge you not to share your personal user ID or password with anyone and not to store them in an unsecured location, like your wallet or near your computer. If others know your ID and password, such persons will be able to log on and access your account. We also recommend that you send any personal information, where possible, through encrypted e-mail or other secured means. In dealing with any company, we recommend that you review its privacy policy and terms of use before providing any personal information.

  • What about children's privacy?

    We also care about your children's privacy and are committed to protecting it. This web site is not aimed at minors and does not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone under the age of 16. In most cases, any personal information on minors that we may have has been provided to us by the parents or legal guardians.

  • How do we inform you about our Privacy Commitment?

    Whether you are a current or potential customer or visitor to our site, you will be able to read our privacy commitment on our web site. You may also be informed in any other way as required by law.

  • What about any changes to our Privacy Commitment?

    We reserve the right to make changes to or update our privacy commitment. We will note any material changes on our web site. You may also be informed in any other way as required by law. Our privacy commitment applies to personal information collected on this site on or after the date on which the commitment has come into effect. Any revisions to our privacy commitment will apply to personal information collected under previous versions of our privacy commitment.

  • What about IP addresses?

    When you first logged on to the Internet, your computer was assigned a number called an IP address by a central Internet database. Whenever you access any web site, like ours, your computer sends this IP address to the host computer (which also has its own IP address). This allows the two computers to communicate and keeps a record of the interchange (comparable to the way telephone systems keep a record of phone calls made or received), including the date and time of such interchange. We do not use IP addresses to trace the identify of users of our web sites or use "trace routing" or other such procedures for commercial purposes. Naturally, we reserve the right to do so to protect the security of our systems and meet our legal obligations.

If after reading our FAQs you still have questions, feel free to contact us.